George A Bonanno

Jerome L. Singer (1924-2019).

The American psychologist January 1, 2022 Scott Barry Kaufman, George A Bonanno

Jerome L. Singer, who died in 2019 at age 95, is remembered as the pioneering researcher who established daydreaming and mind wandering as normal, adaptive mental activities rather than signs of pathology. Over more than 50 years of work, his research showed that daydreaming is a pervasive aspect of human experience serving positive social and creative functions, earning him the nickname "the father of daydreaming." After earning a PhD in clinical psychology in 1951, he trained as a psychoanalyst and held research appointments before directing the clinical psychology program at City University in 1963, where he studied "decoupled attention" with collaborator John Antrobus. He joined Yale University in 1972, becoming emeritus in 2006, and with his wife Dorothy codirected Yale's Family TV Research and Consultation Center for over 30 years.